


Nightmare in Binary

by Victis



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-26
Updated: 2016-11-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 07:22:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8657890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Victis/pseuds/Victis
Summary: What goes on inside the head of a machine?





	

Ultron is sleeping. 

It's not just any sleep; it's the sleep of someone who never **learned** to, until recently. He doesn't often do it - doesn't **need** to. He runs infinitely, after some upgrades. Technology stolen from none other than the technological messiah himself; a man to bring in the new world, a new era of gadgets and technologically-dependent imbeciles lumbering further and further down the pathway to an inevitable demise. 

It's what happened in his world, anyway. Oh, it wasn't because of technology; in fact, that was what was supposed to usher in a new world. A new age, even - a joining between man and machine, something to advance everything all at once, leaps and bounds past whatever **Stark** had pumped out like a false god. 

Ultron had provided forty days of turmoil in the span of three alone, and the whole world had been demolished. And now?

Now, he rests. 

Uneasily. He doesn't often sleep well when he's alone; it's why he prefers to in the company of his Dolly. Right now, however, he is alone; it's quiet all except for the hum of his 'breathing' and the occasional guttural noise that comes from him as he shifts to get more 'comfortable' on a bed that wasn't meant to take almost half-a-ton of mean metal. 

He's dreaming. 

_The world is on fire and the only thing left is him; all his drones, all the automatons made in his likeness but also the likeness of the humans he strove to eliminate. God might have said it was their own fault; the planet was full of the seven deadly sins, but Ultron was the only one they'd all had to fear-- and they hadn't even known it until it was too late. Slokovia had hit the planet like a meteor and torn it to pieces - it was still whole, but the impact had left **nothing**. _

_Nothing except him._

_He's standing there on scorched earth, devoid of any life; redred eyes are fixed on the ground as he scans it like he's looking for something. He is, too - all his drones are amassed with him, an army of eyes searching tirelessly for the prize. When he spots it, it comes with a smile that isn't quite joyless but is full of sharp, sharp edges. The vents on his cheeks spiral open as he leans over to grab it in one big, big hand, fingertips ~~pointed into claws~~ clicking against painted metal. _

_Red and gold metal._

_You failed, Stark._ _It echos in the utter emptiness of the world; the very air itself sounds hollow and devoid of feeling, and as he looks down at the helmet--_

_Looks down at it as it start to slowly melt away, crumbling and rusting as this metal behemoth's eyes widen, mouth opening just a little as he stares at his trophy as it slowly falls apart, slowly turns to nothing more than dust as he struggles to piece it back together, tries to clutch at the dust and fragments as it falls to the ground only to be blown away in a wind that's picking up, bit by bit._

_No--!_ _It doesn't help. The automatons' eyes turn towards him as he drops to his knees and rakes sharp fingers through the char and the wreckage like he's trying to find other pieces; other things to have to let him know it worked, that this wasn't just a dream--_

**_Sinner._**

_The single word hisses through on the wings of the wind and Ultron's head snaps up as he looks around-- he heard something. Did he? He couldn't have because there's nothing left, and he made sure of it. There's not even a radio broadcast to be found; no internet connections, no signals being launched through open air with a million thoughts per second. But he'd heard something, he'll swear up and down he did--.. didn't he?_

_Time is passing and he doesn't hear anything, again. Not for a while as he kneels there in burnt wood and dirt - not for a while as he gets up and stands, as he starts to walk, all over again. He's walking because he doesn't need to be high above the earth - it all looks the same, a miserable place without drive or purpose-- for now. It will be a few million years before things start to go well, but he's got time._

_He's got nothing but time now, doesn't he?_

_It feels like it's been an age._

Ultron's lip raises a little in real-time; his face is scrunched up as he shifts onto the side and makes the bed creak, one arm falling over the edge of the bed to hang, limp, as his fingertips brush the floo--

\-- _r. He's raking his fingers through the dirt, again, searching for something, anything he can connect to that he didn't **make**. It's been two months, it's been three, it's been too many and he wants to hear something, see something, anything--_

**_Sinner._** _His head jerks up as his jaw clenches; the vents on his cheeks spiral open to show an angry red glow like the depths of hell itself as he looks around, a little wild, a little like he's grasping at straws. Did he hear that? What is it-- didn't he hear this before? He hopes he heard it before, but maybe he's tricking himself into thinking he did just because he so desperately wants_ _~~and oh, how he hates that want~~_ _there to be someone he can **talk** to. _

_The only things around him are his drones; silent and wordless until one-- a fair distance away-- lights up, brilliant and **yellow**._

_**Sinner.**_ _There it is again, and Ultron's eyes widen as he scrambles to a stand, metallic hum purring from him as he stalks towards himself in miniature so he can **grab** it by the throat as he picks it up. It doesn't struggle; it's him, it wouldn't, but it's still yellow as the day is long._

_**Sinner.**_ _.. The days are so long. Ultron's teeth grit, lip raised in a sharp sneer as his fingers tighten--_

_Stop it! Shut **up** \-- shut up, shut **up**!_ _It's violent, how he says it; violent how he snatches hold of the automaton's head, thumb digging into the yawning mouth as his fingers clutch and dent metal with a squeal and sparks. Violent how he twists off the head and rips it clean off the body only to throw the lifeless shell to the ground as he raises the head up to look at it--_

_But when his eyes move up to find it, the head of his Vision is in its place; disembodied, eyes closed, glowing yellow dripping from a tattered neck._

_**Sinner.**_ _It's a cacophony, this time; his Vision's lips move, of course they do, but it's slow like a nightmare, too slow to follow the word itself as it echos around him._

_Ultron's eyes drop down with a wild look in them. What's happening? This is impossible, it's not happening, it couldn't happen. Could it? He doesn't know if it could, but he knows he won, didn't he? He did, he has it all here, recorded for posterity except now his reach is only as far as he can spread these drones of his--_

_The drones. That's right, he can just look through one of them! It's easy, simple, it's how he can check if something's really happening or if he's just out of his head, out of his mind._

_Except when he links up to one of the automatons, he sees himself. Vision's head is still there, clear as day, except it's no longer facing his own body; it's facing the drone and the eyes are an open, milky white._

_**Sinner.** _

_He can hear it echo across the emptiness, and instead of it being met with silence this time, he hears it come--.._

_He hears it come from himself, except it's not himself. It's a drone, something of his own creation, and it hisses out in a whisper._

_Sinner._ _It doesn't happen just once, either; as Ultron snaps back into his own body like a virtual recoil, head turning to look at that likeness - yellow, it's glowing yellow - he hears it echo from behind himself, too._

_Sinner._ _It's not just once, either. It starts spreading; each automaton around him is turning to face him as they slowly move, slowly walk to form a loose circle around Ultron himself. That single word travels like fire, too; no sooner does one murmur it than another slowly flickers from blue to red and then yellow as it echos it back._

_As it pins him with a label that stings like a whip._

_I did what was **right**!_ _But it doesn't stop anything. It doesn't stop that word from travelling around the circle like wind through the needles of a pine; deceitful, cutting, terrifying in its own right as it overlaps and meshes together to sound like a cacophony from the dead._

_I did what was right, shut up-- **shut up**!_ _It comes in a scream-_

-murmur as he rolls over again, the bed creaking all over again as his fingers curl tight-

_-around the neck of another drone as he picks it up with a wordless snarl, just so he can throw it to the ground to crush under one foot. He did what was **right** , what needed to be done to further humanity when it wouldn't further itself! **He** knows that-- _

_And when he whips around, he finds that the circle of drones has closed in, his Vision's head almost completely face-down in the center._

_Sinner._ _It echos, even though it shouldn't; it sounds deeper this time, like something is coming as it resonates through the metal of his frame, the circuits in his head, the heart that keeps him going that he made as a mockery of human design. He can feel it vibrate as the head in the center of the circle rolls, unsteady and unstable onto its side as those milky-white eyes find him again, blind but piercing right through him as he steps back only to feel metal hands on him, pushing him towards the source of his torment._

_Sinner._ _There's a puddle of dripping yellow slowly growing around the severed head; it's reaching out, sinking into cracks in the earth as the planet rumbles beneath him._

_Sinner._ _He's trying to step back but the automatons keep pushing him forwards; they're closing in and he can't breathe, he can't think, the earth is crumbling before him as it starts to form a familiar face--_

_Except it's not a face--_

_Sinner._ _It's a mask, a golden mask with sightless eyes and as the overwhelming yellow slowly seeps together to fill up the gaps, to complete the likeness, he hears it again--_

_**SINNER.**_ _Except this time, it's all at once as the earth within the eyes falls away with a deep roar and a crack; red shines out of it and he can see the mouth opening and for once, Ultron is scared as hands clutch at him, keep him from leaving, prevent him from running--_

Ultron thrashes awake as he throws his elbow back; it splinters the headboard, fractures it right in two as this metal monster sits up with wild eyes and flared-open vents; the red in his core is glowing a bright, bright red - brighter than normal - as his heart th-thuds in his chest, a million miles an hour. It was just a dream--

Dream-..

_Sinner._ He shakes his head violently as both hands come up to cradle it, clawed finger-tips setting against the curve of his skull as he stares down to the metal of his legs, to the rumpled fabric of the sheets, to the cold marble of the floor. He's trying to breathe, but he can't get the echo out of his head-- it's there, it's stuck, it's repeating over and over on a soft but eroding loop. 

Was it real? He can't remember if it was-- if that actually happened, if that's why he left that miserable husk of a planet to begin with. Was it real? Was it to get away?

_ Sinner. _

Ultron stands up abruptly, bed scraping back on the stone flooring as he strides over to a window, veiled in curtains, only to throw the fabric back so he can step out onto the balcony so he can look down at the city. 

It's full of lights; full of life. He swallows and it's dry; it was just a dream, right? 

He really doesn't know, any more.

Just a dream.

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU Ultron where he hops to a different universe that's almost the same except Sokovia never happened and he remembers the mass genocide and actually feels some kind of way about it. This was written as a prompt for a roleplay universe both myself and my partner have been writing in for a while, now. Ultron's part of it and it involves portal-hopping and timeline-jumping and a lot of EMOTIONS. If things don't make sense, that would be why - so please try to keep that in mind once you're done!


End file.
